Hello from Missouri

This is a discussion on Hello from Missouri within the New Members Introduce Yourself forums, part of the DefensiveCarry.com Forum Office category; Hello Everybody!
I'll do my best to keep this brief. I just found this forum and I wish I had found it much sooner!. My ...

Hello from Missouri

Hello Everybody!

I'll do my best to keep this brief. I just found this forum and I wish I had found it much sooner!. My first name is Carl and I have had a mild interest in guns all my life. When I was a kid growing up on my dad;s farm I loved to target practice with an old bolt action single shot 22 that fired short, long, and long rifle. I would constantly look at some distant object and think "Can I hit that from here?"

Back then I hunted and target practiced a lot. I had to be careful about the target practice because dad would get to cussing when I did. He could not understand why I loved target practice so much. So I'd wait until him and mom were not around. They both hated guns and mom hated both guns and hunting.

I've been an NRA member since I was 18. My interest in the NRA started after I watched a Merv Griffin TV show where he had Cleveland Amory on. Old Clevie boy was in rare form that day back in the 60's. He had a copy of the NRA's magazine "The American Rifleman". Of course he was raising hell about it. I'll never forget him reading some of the ads for guns out loud to the audience. One particular ad he held up for them to see and yelled " Look here!!" " This ad says that with this gun you can shoot a tank or a pickup truck!!" The audience was shocked along with all the celebrity guests. People in the audience were all worked up. Several people stood up and hollered "The Government must do something about this!!" " The NRA should be outlawed!" They are all bums".

My cousins were NRA members at the time. We visited them every Sunday. The next time I was there they had the very same copy of The American Rifleman that old Clevie boy had been ranting about. I must have been about 12 years old at the time but even then I did not take what people told me at face value. I looked all through that magazine and saw none of the things in it that Amory said was in it. It was my first introduction to how the media twists the truth. I firmly resolved that as soon as I was old enough I was going to join the NRA and help fight against the Cleveland Amory's of the world. Years later I was to read that Clevie was arrested for having an illegal gun. He was caught when he decided to shoot at some children stealing apples from his trees. It's OK for him to have a gun but it's not OK for the rest of us un-educated and un-enlightened people.

I no longer hunt and I rarely target practice due to my disabilities. I never considered myself a good shot. What I did learn about guns, shooting, hunting, and fishing I taught myself.

I still have a few guns and a year or so ago I bought a 9mm ruger SR9 because I liked it's looks but most importantly I like how it felt in my hands. I'd also never owned a 9mm before. I still have my Smith and Wesson 38 spl. along with a 357 magnum Ruger. I also have a tiny little Jennings 22 cal Semi-Auto for my wife. Also a Luger 22 cal semi auto along with a Ruger single six (A favorite) and A Ruger semi-auto 22 pistol that looks a little like the old Ruger. Oh I have a few rifles too. The mainstream media would call my meager collection an arsenal.

I joined this forum because someday both me and my wife want to get our concealed carry permits. My wife is the better shot of the two of us but she swears it's me. Her mother was a great shot with a pistol and so was her granddad. My mother-in-law once caught some young men trying to burn down their storage shed on Halloween night. She told them to put the fire out. They laughed at her. She whipped out her 38 special and started making them dance. She then made them put the fire out before they ran off. She told me that for a long time after that she kept expecting to see the cops come and arrest her but they never did. That was back in the early 1960's and the people in our little rural town did not call the law over every little thing like everybody does now. She herself had learned that trick from her dad who once did it to a young man he did not like who was trying to date one of his daughters.

I'm looking forward to visiting here and I hope you all don't mind an occasional dumb question from me.:-)

Last edited by rstickle; February 12th, 2013 at 08:03 AM.
Reason: language

[T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people. ---Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.